Carlsbad turned down proposals from Orange County and the state Parks Department this week, choosing instead to continue a service the city started with a pilot program in 2017 to provide its own lifeguards on the city’s long unprotected North Beach area.

“I’m not a fan of contracting out,” said Councilman Keith Blackburn. ”I’ve always been of the opinion that Carlsbad provides better service.”

Other council members agreed. They unanimously approved the permanent beach lifeguard service to be run by the city’s Fire Department at an estimated cost of $603,000 annually.

Hotels, homes and vacation rentals line the one-mile stretch of coastline north of Pine Avenue near Carlsbad’s downtown Village neighborhood and the southern border of Oceanside.

However, the beach was unguarded until the summer pilot program.

Residents increased their push for safety services there after an especially rough summer in 2016, when lifeguards from the nearby Carlsbad state beach made 197 rescues at North Beach over the three-day July 4th weekend. The area is known for a frequently dangerous rip current, and has been getting more visitors in recent years.

The state Parks Department owns about six miles of Carlsbad’s seven miles of beach, and provides the lifeguard services there. The Carlsbad Fire Department provides emergency medical services to all the city’s beaches.

However, state lifeguards have never watched or patrolled the northernmost mile, which is private property above the mean high tide line. They responded only when summoned for emergencies, coming from the nearest state beach to the south.

After the successful pilot program, Carlsbad decide to continue with interim lifeguard services on the North Beach in 2018.

Prevention is the biggest part of safety, lifeguards say. A big part of their job is frequent contact with the public to warn people of potential hazards.

This year, the North Beach had 205,140 visitors from May 19 to Sept. 3, according to the Fire Department’s statistics.

Lifeguards made almost 27,000 “preventative safety actions” during that time, usually things like warning people about the rip current, jellyfish or other hazards. They made 14,000 education or outreach contacts, 372 rescues, 280 law enforcement actions, and 99 medical aids, the statistics show.

Two full-time positions will be added to supervise the permanent program, and about 25 part-time lifeguards will be hired from May through September. The program includes three wooden lifeguard towers, two trucks and a personal watercraft for patrols.

Orange County had bid $605,000 annually to provide the service, and the California Department of Parks and Recreation offered a proposal for $434,000. All of the proposals were for year-round service, peaking in the summer and scaling down to minimal staffing in winter.

All three proposals considered by the city were good ones, Fire Chief Michael Calderwood said after the council’s decision.

“Regardless of the service provider, lifeguards are a needed function, a measure of safety for that stretch of coastline,” Calderwood said.

The City Council had talked several times previously over the last 10 years about starting a beach lifeguard service, without reaching any conclusion.

This year the city began construction to improve seven public stairways leading down to North Beach from Ocean Avenue. Also, the city is improving the signs, landscaping and crosswalks to make it easier for people to access the area.